Warlock builds
Warlock talent builds are many and varied. Each tree is worth speccing up to 31 points in, and many Destruction builds invest more than 31 points in their primary tree. Regardless of which path a player eventually chooses, it is sure to be littered with many tough choices. Affliction The DOTs Curse of Agony and Corruption are some of the most mana effective spells available for the Warlock. That is, the amount of damage per mana is higher compared to Direct Damage spells like Shadow Bolt. The Affliction talent tree can improve on these even more. There are problems using DOTs in parties and raids. There is a risk that the mob is killed before the completion of a DOT. This is especially bad for Curse of Agony, that makes most damage in the end. If this happen, then mana and time will be wasted. When going in 40-man raids, there is also the risk that a mob will get more than 16 debuffs or DOTs, which will force one or more of them to be removed. Because of this, it happens that raid leaders restrict what DOTs are allowed. DP/Finisher 35/5/11 Talent Calculator Link This build dabbles in all three talent trees. It's geared toward low end initial damage, with high yield after a few seconds. In 5 man instances it will be completely unrivaled on the damage meters in the right gear. 5 points are spent in the Demonology tree for group support purposes. This build is strictly PvE and farming aimed, and is unrivaled in both. It will be of little effectiveness in PvP, due to its lacking burst damage, and reliance on DoT's. However, the sustained "rolling" damage, and shortened cast time of shadow bolt (and the frequent instant cast ability granted by the shadow trance, which is triggered often due to the extreme use of instant cast corruption, and drain life) make for a high damage output over the course of any group fight. The aim of this spec is to lay up to 4 DoT's on ALL targets, and move back to drain the life of the MT's target (all targets are now being damaged by you, while also healing you). Due to the incredibly high, seemingly uncontrollable constant damage output of this spec, its very difficult to survive in a group at maximum damage output without a pally and a VERY able bodied tank. Without a doubt, the most fun 51 point build for a Warlock. Everyone will tell you that you are crazy, until they see what you can do. (This is a seemingly, previously unreleased build which has remained my absolute favorite since the day i hit 60, and could create it) -Meghadys- 60 Warlock/Skywall Dark Pact (31/--/--) Talent Calculator Link This build is perhaps one of the best known builds to grind (killing monsters in rapid succession to get exp) with. It utilizes Improved Corruption, Siphon Life, and Drain Life (along with Fel Concentration) to "Drain Tank" (using Drain Life and Fel Concentration together to be able to take hits, deal damage, and heal at the same time) to kill. Many say that Siphon Life is not worth using unless the full duration is used up, but it can also be used to deal damage as fast as possible. With all the abilities to gain life, Improved Life Tap becomes a crucial component to this build because the warlock can Life Tap to convert HP to mana and then drain some more. This build will usually drain more HP than it will lose which is why Life Tap is used. Dark Pact is used in between fights. It is ideal to use an Imp because it has the largest mana pool of all the pets and also have the highest spirit and, therefore, the highest mana regeneration rate. For this reason it is colloquially referred to as the "mana battery." The Imp will remain Phase Shifted to minimize the chances of it getting killed and to conserve mana for Dark Pact. SM / Ruin 30/0/21 Talent Calculator Link This talent spec focuses on Affliction/Destruction, utilizing two main talents: Shadow Mastery and Ruin. Shadow Mastery is the second-to-last talent on the Affliction tree, and increases all shadow damage done by 10% (when maxed out). Ruin is near the end of the Destruction tree, and increases the critical strike bonus of Destruction spells by 100% instead of 50%. This allows your damage over time spells and your Shadowbolts to be as powerful as they can be, which are your main sources of damage in high level instances. This is an average spec for PvP combat, as you can damage your opponents with damage over time and Shadowbolt. Notice again that this build is oriented on DPS. You have to decide whether you want high damage output of this build or more survivability from a Soul Link build. SM / Ruin 30/0/21 (PvP) Talent Calculator Link This spec is similar to the above SM/Ruin spec but is more focused on getting the most out of your DOTs. This is better geared toward PvP play than raiding due to the 16 debuff cap that will normally be filled by the rest of your raid. In this spec, Improved Curse of Agony is favoured over Curse of Exhaustion, to deal the most damage possible (since the CoA may not stay on the target long enough to deal its final deadly damage). Amplify Curse is also sacrificed in favour of filling Suppression with 5 points. SM / DS 30/21/0 Talent Calculator Link This talent uses only Affliction and Demonology. It's two key talents are Shadow Mastery and Demonic Sacrifice. Shadow Mastery is the second-to-last talent on the affliction tree and it increases shadow damage by 10% when five points are put into it. Demonic Sacrifice is 21 points into the Demonology tree and allows you to sacrifice your pet for a powerful buff. This talent build is not very strong in PvP. However, it is generally accepted to be second to none when it comes to farming efficiency. It also can be very powerful in raids if your fellow raiders do not mind you sacficing your pet. The strategy for farming with this build is to sacrifice your Voidwalker for health regen and then apply DoTs to several targets. For PvP this build is not very effective as it lacks the necessary burst damage. Either sacrifice your voidwalker or succubus for either health regeneration or higher spell damage and then proceed to unload all your damaging DoTs onto the target and try to keep him feared. This same strategy is used for farming high level elites. This build's stength is farming and while it is decent in instances it is fairly bad in PvP. Demonology The Demonology talent tree and the use of summoned demons are what mainly distinguishes a Warlock from a Mage. Nightfall / Soul Link (20/31/0) Talent Calculator Link Soul Link builds perhaps have the best survivability of all the warlock builds. With the build's ability to split 30% of the damage taken to the pet (via Soul Link) and the ability to use Drain Life with a 30% chance of not getting interrupted (through Fel Concentration), the damage taken is very minimal. However, this build requires a rather large amount of +damage/+shadow damage before it becomes efficient (around +300). The pet of choice is usually the Felhunter; the ability to counter (Spell Lock), dispel magic (Devour), deal damage, and have the second most hp and armor next to the Voidwalker makes it an ideal pet to use. On top of those properties, Master Demonologist allows the warlock to receive +60 resistance to all schools of magic at level 60. Above this, Nightfall allows Shadowbolts to be shot at instant speed. This will provide with lots of instant Shadowbolts through Nightfall along with lots of increased HP with Soul Linked pets, instant summon of a pet (Fel Domination), along with sacrificed demons for excellent buff opportunities. A strong PvP build that works with PvE end game raids as well. Soul Link +2 (9/31/11) Talent Calculator Link Soul Link, but counters the disadvantage of speccing heavily in Affliction by providing more reliable Burst DPS (2.5 second Shadowbolts, and instant-cast Shadowburn). Soul Link Allround (7/31/13) Not much of a difference to the one mentioned before in terms of numbers... but you wouldn't believe what 2 talent points spent in improved Lash of Pain or improved Firebolt can change. However due to a bug only 1 point in imp. Firebolt is advisable as the 2. one has no effect so put it in +1% Crit or whatever you like. When playing with a succubus or imp these 2 points can significantly increase your overall DPS. MD / Ruin (0/30/21) Talent Calculator Link This is a very versatile build that can be used for many purposes. The 2.5 second Shadowbolts in combination with Ruin will allow you to put out much damage. Pets can be summoned in 6seconds (normal summon 10 seconds). This build includes the talents Demonic Sacrifice and Master Demonologist, which will both allow the Warlock to adapt in many ways. This is a good build for tanking the twin emperors in AQ40. Weaknesses of this build are less powerful DoTs and lack of Improved Life Tap. Destruction Heavy Destruction (--/--/31+) Talent Calculater Link: 7/8/36 Talent Calculator Link: 0/10/41 Talent Calculator Link: 7/7/37 This build is very similar to being a mage with it's ability to nuke (deal a lot of damage at a short amount of time). Often refered to as a "Firelock" do to the extensive use of fire spells Immolate, Conflagrate, (occasional Soul Fire for PvP) and Searing Pain as main sources of damage. With Ruin, critical hits are 33% more damaging (making every critical hit deal 2 times more damage than normal non-critical hits). With Improved Searing Pain, the critical rate is very high and because Searing Pain has a short casting time, it makes it an ideal spell to use whenever Conflagrate is cooling down. For PvE, The pet of choice is the Imp, with Improved Imp and Improved Firebolt, it can deal 125 every second and it also gives the warlock a stamina buff through Blood Pact. For PvP, the pet of choice is usually a Succubus. The Succubus is used for two main reasons: One, it can use it's Seduce ability to hold people long enough for a Soul Fire to be used, and Two, it is the only way for Warlocks to deal with Fury Warriors reliably. A common PvP strategy for Destruction Heavy Warlocks is to Seduce with a Succubus, then use Shadowbolt or, if there is time, Soul Fire, then follow up with Immolate, and a Fear. The opponent is the kept feared as much as possible, and Conflagrate used once an Immolate has landed. DoT's are used fairly often, but only as secondary damage. This build is mainly geared towards PvP because of the threat Searing Pain causes, and unless the tank is very good at holding aggro in a PvE environment, the warlock will be expecting to take some hits, causing the tank some frustration. This build also eats through mana very quickly because of the amount of high-cost spells that are used. Firemancer/Balanced Destruction Build (7/5/39) Talent Calculator Link This build is mainly meant for PvP with its majority of destruction talents. It can, however, have a great damage output in PvE too, if played skillfully as it utilizes most of the Must-Have talents, inluding Improved Life Tap for better Mana/Health efficiency, Demonic Embrace for the additional Health, Bane for increased DPS with the Destruction spells, Shadowburn for an additional finishing move and Ruin for higher Critical Strike damage. 5/5 Devastation gives this build a high natural Critical Strike chance with all Destruction spells and Improved Searing Pain makes Searing Pain a viable PvP tool with a very high natural crit chance. Intensity and Pyroclasm gives the Warlock class better AoE abilities. Nightfall / Conflagrate (19/0/32) Talent Calculator Link This build is mainly meant for PvP with its majority of destruction talents. It has the highest potential for burst direct damage of any build (Nightfall, Shadowburn, Conflagrate). Sacrifices 15% base STA (Demonic Embrace) for increased Affliction range, Fel Concentration, and Nightfall procs. Although this build is more focused towards PvP, this build can also be used in raids and can compete in damage with other raid builds. On the downside, the burst damage potential is an aggro magnet and very mana intensive. Some variations include dropping Emberstorm for Aftermath and Pyroclasm. Demonic Sacrifice-builds 30/21/0 19/21/11 One thing you should know: These builds are good for leveling, but still flexible enough to work for both PvP or instancing. Demonic Sacrifice grants the abilities to grind solo without even buying water or food (Sacrifice the voidwalker for 3% health regen every 4 seconds. Seeing as you should have 3000 - 4500 HP pre-MC, depending on your gear, this should be piece of cake). Nightfall is great for grinding as it allows you to fire off instant shadowbolts, improvements on drain life (imp. Drain Life / Fel Concentration) is also great. After these mandatory choices, it's up to you wether you want to put 12 points in Destruction for better PvE DPS or crits, or rather just do Shadow Mastery and Siphon Life for better grinding. Both works well out in any case, it's up to you. Of course, you need to have instant corruption and Demonic Embrace for this talent build to work out. Seeing as there's no better places to put the points anyway in the first tier of Demonology and Affliction, it should hardly be a problem anyway. If you choose to use the 12 points in Destruction after getting Nightfall and Amplify Curse in Affliction, you should also get Bane and Improved Shadowbolt. This is about what you should need to know here. 7/21/21 +2 This is a variation of the above builds, still centered around Demonic Sacrifice, but paired with Ruin instead of Nightfall for unlimited high damage Shadowbolts and Immolate in soloing and instances. ---------- Category:Guides Category:Warlocks Category:Talents